File:Nursery of New Stars - GPN-2000-000972.jpg

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Information from its description page there is shown below. Commons is a freely licensed media file repository. You can help.

This is a featured picture on the Turkish language Wikipedia ( Seçkin resimler) and is considered one of the finest images.

If you think this file should be featured on Wikimedia Commons as well, feel free to nominate it. If you have an image of similar quality that can be published under a suitable copyright license, be sure to upload it, tag it, and nominate it.

Description

English: This is a Hubble Space Telescope image (right) of a vast nebula called NGC 604, which lies in the neighboring spiral galaxy M33, located 2.7 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum.

This is a site where new stars are being born in a spiral arm of the galaxy. Though such nebulae are common in galaxies, this one is particularly large, nearly 1,500 light-years across. The nebula is so vast it is easily seen in ground-based telescopic images (left).

At the heart of NGC 604 are over 200 hot stars, much more massive than our Sun (15 to 60 solar masses). They heat the gaseous walls of the nebula making the gas fluoresce. Their light also highlights the nebula's three-dimensional shape, like a lantern in a cavern. By studying the physical structure of a giant nebula, astronomers may determine how clusters of massive stars affect the evolution of the interstellar medium of the galaxy.

The nebula also yields clues to its star formation history and will improve understanding of the starburst process when a galaxy undergoes a "firestorm" of star formation. The image was taken on January 17, 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Separate exposures were taken in different colors of light to study the physical properties of the hot gas (17,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 10,000 degrees Kelvin

This file is in the public domain because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)

Warnings:

Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems are restricted per US law 14 CFR 1221.

The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/ Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain.

Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI. See also {{ PD-Hubble}} and {{ Cc-Hubble}}.

The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use.

Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted.

This image or video was catalogued by Hubble Space Telescope Institute of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: GPN-2000-000972 AND Alternate ID: PR96-27B. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.

File usage

The following pages on Schools Wikipedia link to this image (list may be incomplete):

Find out more

Wikipedia for Schools is one of SOS Children's many educational projects. SOS Children's Villages is there for the children in our care until they are ready for independence. Would you like to sponsor a child?

Wikipedia for Schools is a selection taken from the original English-language Wikipedia by the child sponsorship charity SOS Children. It was created as a checked and child-friendly teaching resource for use in schools in the developing world and beyond.Sources and authors can be found at www.wikipedia.org. See also our Disclaimer.